Marie Louise Trichet

Marie Louise Trichet, also known as Marie-Louise de Jésus (1684–1759), was a French Catholic figure who, with Louis de Montfort, founded the Congregation of religious women called Daughters of Wisdom and since the age of seventeen devoted her life to caring for the poor and the sick. She is also referred to as the First Daughter of Wisdom. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Early life and background

Childhood and education Trichet was born in Poitiers, on the Clain River in west central France on 7 May 1684 and baptized at the church of St. Etienne. Her father Julien was a court magistrate in Poitiers and her mother Françoise Lecocq was deeply religious, as was most of her family. She was the fourth child and third daughter, and had seven siblings.

The eldest, Jeanne, struck with paralysis at the age of thirteen, was cured three years later during a visit to Notre Dame des Ardilliers at Saumur. Her younger brother Alexis, born just one year earlier, was ordained a priest in 1710 and later died after volunteering to minister to plague stricken inmates in a prison camp. The youngest of her sisters later joined the Daughters of Wisdom. He tried to introduce rules and rights for the inmates, but met strong resistance from the hospital authorities.

Meeting Louis de Montfort At seventeen, Trichet met for the first time Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort who had just been appointed chaplain of the hospital of Poitiers. Marie-Louise offered her services to the hospital, devoting most of her time to the poor and the sick. When she was nineteen, Montfort asked her to come and live there. Given that there was no official position for a governor at the hospital, despite her family background and education, she volunteered to enter the hospital "as an inmate".

Trichet's parents were not pleased with her decision to enter the hospital as an inmate and her mother reportedly told her: "You will become as mad as that priest". In a short time, the free school, supported by the bishop and following the program and rules laid down by Montfort, had 400 students.

On 22 August 1715 Trichet and Brunet, along with Marie Valleau and Marie Régnier from La Rochelle received the approbation of Bishop de Champflour of La Rochelle to perform their religious profession under the direction of Montfort. At the ceremony Montfort told them: "Call yourselves the Daughters of Wisdom, for the teaching of children and the care of the poor."

Following the path of Montfort In April 1716 Montfort had gone to Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre to preach, where he fell ill and died on 28 April 1716. The thirty-two-year-old Trichet thus had to assume the full responsibility for the foundation.

In 1719 the sisters went back to Poitiers and later managed to establish a Mother House in 1720 at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in the Maison Longue (the long house), now a museum devoted to her life and the Daughters of Wisdom. But they had to live in abject poverty for several years, at times living on black bread alone and occasionally an egg. In time with providence and the dowries provided by certain new novices, they acquired land that produced some revenue. As Montfort had predicted, in time more novices arrived and the organization grew.

In the thirty years that followed 1729 Trichet established thirty new charitable communities where the Daughters of Wisdom visited the poor, nursed the sick and taught children, with no payment, but supported by benefactors or parishioners. During the devastating famine of 1739 she begged the authorities to come to the rescue of the hungry.

In the houses of providence the Sisters lived with orphans, the aged, and the handicapped. At the general hospitals at La Rochelle, or at Niort in Deux-Sèvres their services were hired to introduce a minimal level of peace, joy and order to the prevailing filth and disorder.

Last years and death When she was 66 years old, Trichet undertook a long journey on horseback to visit all her communities, talk with the Sisters and inspire them. She always told the Sisters: "Your real Superior is Mary; I am but her servant." That was her last trip, for upon returning to the Mother House at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre she never left again. An accidental fall caused her months of suffering, followed by a final illness from which she did not recover. On her deathbed she called a benefactor to beg that the poor of the parish be cared for, after her death.

Trichet died at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in Vendée on 28 April 1759, the same day and location where Louis de Montfort had died 43 years earlier on 28 April 1716.

On Trichet's death, the congregation included 174 sisters distributed in 36 communities and the Mother House. After the persecutions during the French Revolution, the Daughters of Wisdom regrouped and grew again. They were awarded medals by the governments of France, Spain, Prussia, and Belgium for nursing the wounded or plague-stricken soldiers of those countries on many occasions.

Legacy and beatification Montfort and Trichet rest in adjacent tombs in the church of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre. The Daughters of Wisdom have since grown into a multi-national organization.

On 16 May 1993 Trichet was beatified by Pope John-Paul II. In the process of examining her life prior to beatification, one cardinal wrote of her:

"She offers an example of how to work for the development of the whole human person in a spirit of sacrifice, looking for no reward, ever open to read the signs of the times with a serene and humble spirit."

On 19 September 1996 Pope John-Paul II came to meditate and pray on the tombs of Montfort and Trichet in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre.